When the driver of a private bus stopped the vehicle at the unauthorised bus stop west of LIC Divisional Office in Palayamkottai, two budding women engineers, who were trailing the bus in their two-wheeler, had to stop their bike suddenly as they did not expect that the driver would stop the vehicle right on the highway and at an unapproved bus stop. While the bus left the spot after the passengers waiting at this point got into it, the engineering students fell on the road as they lost balance and sustained bruises.
This is not an isolated incident happening in Palayamkottai as the drivers of government and private buses daringly stop vehicles at unauthorised stops on busy highways either to trigger accidents or obstruct free flow of traffic on officious thoroughfares.
Whenever the affected public raise their voice against the violation of road safety regulation, the bus drivers, especially private bus drivers, even issue death threats.
The most agonising aspect of this violation is that the police, who organise a series of road safety awareness programmes, prefer to turn a blind eye on this serious issue.
“Though the police have installed a signboard (west of LIC Divisional Office) saying that buses should not be stopped at this point to take or drop passengers, drivers of government and private buses show mean respect for this instruction. As the police do not take action against the violators, the erring drivers daringly continue to defy this dictum everyday umpteen number of times and accidents at this busy spot have become the order of the day. I’m a witness to a minimum of three accidents a day at this point,” says an autorickshaw driver, who parks his vehicle near the Jothipuram Ground.
Another spot witnessing accidents everyday is the unauthorised stop at the northern end of the Vannarpet flyover.
Though a designated stop has been provided with a shelter near Hotel Apple Tree, buses are stopped before this stop to cause accidents involving north-bound two-wheelers entering the main road from the service road.
Similarly, government and private bus drivers stop their vehicles right on the highway on coming out of Palayamkottai bus-stand to pick up passengers getting down from Thoothukudi or Tiruchendur buses as drivers of these mofussil buses stop their vehicles near Hotel Nellai Saravanabhava, another unauthorised bus stop.
“If the mofussil bus drivers are instructed to stop their vehicles near the entrance of Mayor’s Bungalow, it will automatically solve the problems being faced by the road users, especially a few thousand schoolchildren using this busy road in the morning and evening,” says Prabhu, a van driver transporting schoolchildren everyday.
Though a representation was submitted to the police in this connection recently, no punitive action has been taken against the erring drivers.
Consequently, the busy roads of Palayamkottai are witnessing accidents everyday, much to the agony of the public.
